IBM teases new rackable mainframes that ‘complete’ the z17 family

systems

UPDATED: Big Blue happy for users to BYO rack and slot Z machines alongside other tech

IBM has posted an announcement that teases the introduction of rack-mounted and single-frame versions of its z17 mainframes.

Big Blue’s documentation for the z17 mentions only a model called the ME1 that scales from single-rack to four-rack systems.

The Tuesday announcement mentions bundles called the z17 ME2 and IBM z17 MER, respectively a single-frame and rack-mounted affair. The announcement doesn’t offer any specs but says they “complete the IBM z17 product family.”

IBM asserts that a z17 ME2 packing a single integrated accelerator for AI on an OLTP network “matches the throughput of running inferencing on a compared remote x86 server with 21 cores.” That’s not enormously impressive given that x86 processors can now pack hundreds of cores, and servers that use them are generally cheaper than mainframes. Big Blue also claims the z17 ME2 can “process up to 2.5 million inference operations per second with 1 ms response time using a Credit Card Fraud Detection Deep Learning model.^”

The announcement claims the new boxes, and numerous other enhancements, “are designed to simplify how clients adopt and scale artificial intelligence, strengthen security, support compliance efforts, and modernize operations across mission-critical enterprise workloads.”

IBM will start taking orders for the new machines on August 12^th.

Earlier this year, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told investors that the z17 is IBM’s best-selling mainframe in 20 years and attributed strong sales to big iron being cheaper to operate than alternative platforms – especially for AI applications.

Analyst firm Gartner recently told The Register that adopting a mainframe can be cheaper than sticking with VMware. The firm has also published guidance suggesting that more than 70 percent of projects that aim to replace mainframes by using generative AI to rewrite COBOL code are likely to fail.

“By 2030, 75 percent of vendors operating in the ‘mainframe exit’ market will either pivot their business models or cease to exist,” Gartner wrote.

Big Blue had a big day on Tuesday – at least in terms of mainframe announcements – as it also published news of improved COBOL optimization and an update to its z/VM hypervisor. ®

UPDATED 02:00 UTC JULY 8 to add this link to IBM’s press release about the new machines, which it published hours after The Register‘s report. Big Blue says the ME2 can pack up to 82 cores and 18 TB of memory into two processor drawers and revealed four models:

• IBM z17 single frame – is a fully packaged solution in an IBM rack and intelligent power distribution units (iPDUs), delivered as a complete enclosed unit ready to deploy. Users can deploy “other technologies within the frame,” Big Blue says.

• IBM z17 rack mount – a BYO rack affair that lets users install IBM Z components directly into their own racks, “with built-in flexibility for co-location with other technologies.”

• IBM LinuxONE Rockhopper 5 – a multi-drawer LinuxONE system for high-density workloads, sold in single frame and rack mount configurations.

• IBM LinuxONE Rockhopper 5 rack mount and Express – An 18U rig that IBM says suits “organizations supporting a smaller set of workloads.”